News of New Zealanders via Global Media

The Australian’s wine columnist James Halliday was introduced to self-made billionare, American Brian Sheth by New Zealand-born and bred Steve Smith MW (pictured right), who in 1996 had become the world’s first Master of…

“If you have a ‘Kitchen Porn’ board on Pinterest, and your idea of a perfect Saturday afternoon is drooling over showpiece ranges and luxe dishwashing drawers, then welcome to your new favourite place to…

New Zealand-born winemaker Grant Phelps has just opened WineBox, a wine-focused hotel in the city of Valparaíso, Chile constructed out of 25 decommissioned shipping containers.
Set on a former micro landfill in Cerro Mariposa (or…

Boys of Yoga founder New Zealander Michael James Wong, 32, is interviewed by Sunday Times correspondent Stuart Heritage for an article about the growing popularity of lifestyle sites for men.
Wong describes himself as a…

“Christopher Liddell has been named the deputy chief of staff for policy coordination, the White House announced Monday morning,” writes Jenna Johnson in an article for The Washington Post.
“Liddell, a…

Silicon Valley-based flying car start-up “Kitty Hawk, backed by Google founder Larry Page, has been secretly testing an electric autonomous aircraft for several months in New Zealand, the company revealed…

“New Zealand’s Auckland Airport is testing the use of an onscreen avatar to answer biosecurity questions from travellers in a bid to reduce the workload of airport officials,” writes Aaron Tan in an article…

Virgin Media, with New Zealander Tom Mockridge at the helm, has connected more than a million homes to its ultrafast broadband network, in the latest sign that the roll-out of high-speed internet services is…

New Zealand is about to take a pioneering approach to fighting HIV/AIDS – by publicly funding pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medication Truvada, manufactured by US biotech giant Gilead.
Taking this drug daily has shown to offer…

This year, Rocket Lab plans to blast a 56-foot vehicle into orbit on a mission to revolutionize access to space. The rocket “was manufactured in Auckland and will launch from New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula,”…

“In a country celebrated for women’s leadership and where women were first to win the vote, it’s surprising to find a shortage of philanthropic funds by women, for women,” reports an article published in…

In 2013, New Zealander Mark Wilson, an insurance turnaround specialist hired from Hong Kong to fix a then-troubled Aviva, was wondering how he could overhaul its Irish business in a very difficult market.
“When I…

New Zealander Jonathan Dower, who is a game artist for Helsinki-based Supercell, didn’t just design how people play the real-time multiplayer game Clash Royale – he helped come up with how it looks, too,…

Leading scientists pick the dozen most significant discoveries and developments of 2017 – from a steep decline in flying insects to a laughter-like play vocalisation – a warble call – has been discovered in…

Twenty-eight-year-old New Zealander Beck Wadworth founded her own stationery company and blog, An Organised Life, in 2013 – after a fruitless search to find a functional-yet-sleek diary left her with nothing. She shares how…

When Huffington Post contributor E. Nina Rothe was introduced to Amsterdam-based brand Abel at this year’s Pitti Fragranze, a fragrance fair held in Florence every September, she fell in love. Not just with their…

“New Zealand-based company Manta5 has created a hydrofoil bike that allows cyclists to glide atop water,” writes Lacy Cooke in an article for Inhabitat.
Co-founder Guy Howard-Willis “glimpsed New Zealand’s coastline…

Former professional soccer star Tim Brown “was troubled by what he felt was a lack of sustainable practices in footwear materials and manufacturing,” as well as “the over-the-top nature of the branding landscape itself….

Award-winning farming couple, New Zealander Matt Smith and wife Pip, co-owners of Trefranck Farm near Launceston, in the UK have used HSBC funding to acquire 250 pedigree breeding deer, which has increased their livestock…

Educator and writer Graeme Sait’s mission in life is creating a new agricultural paradigm for the world to improve human health. Soil health and nutrition farming is what the New Zealander imparts and India,…

Top advertising executive New Zealand-born Sean Seamer has landed the role of Supercars CEO and will take up the position in Australia next year. Seamer joins the series following a 15-year stint with Mediacom,…

Merino wool clothing retailer Icebreaker, founded by New Zealander Jeremy Moon 22 years ago, has been sold to US-based VF Corporation, which owns The North Face, Timberland and Vans.
Moon, who did not reveal how…

What’s the aquatic equivalent of the e-bike? “That’s what New Zealand outdoors entrepreneur Guy Howard-Willis wondered back in 2010, when he conceived of the Manta5,” writes Ben Coxworth in an article for

New Zealander Sean Gourley, the founder and CEO of Primer, a 2.5-year-old, previously media-shy startup that uses artificial intelligence algorithms to parse vast quantities of data and spit out pithy, navigable digests, is demonstrating…

Apple, which recently said it was including wireless charging in its latest iPhone X and iPhone 8 smartphones, has acquired Auckland-based firm PowerbyProxi that designs wireless power products for consumers and industry.
Wireless charging allows…

“As we embrace technological innovation, we must also grapple with its implications,” warns New Zealand futurist Roger Dennis in a blog post in the Scientific American.
“The introduction of new software…

New Zealand menswear label Rodd & Gunn celebrated the soft opening recently of its first Los Angeles store, which joins others in San Francisco and Newport Beach. The focus on California makes sense, said the…

Faces from the Front: Harold Gillies, The Queen’s Hospital, Sidcup and the Origins of Modern Plastic Surgery by Andrew Bamji “highlights the work of young surgeon Harold Gillies, who repaired the faces of those…

Straight-talking New Zealander Ross McEwan has been at the helm of Royal Bank of Scotland since 2013, working to try and rebuild its tattered reputation and repay the £45bn of public money required to…

An exotic dancer from New Zealand has transformed herself into a “sex witch” and plans on putting her spell on disciples around the world. Melbourne-based Shaney Marie, 31, delved into witchcraft after spending years…

“Professor Bruce Houghton – described by one colleague as “a giant of volcanology” – has received the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior’s Thorarinsson Medal”, which is ‘volcanology’s highest honour,’…

She doesn’t have a multimillion-dollar laboratory or a celebrity endorsement deal. But New Zealand-born Melbourne-based Anna Ross is a bona fide cosmetics queen, with her Kester Black nail polish selling around the world –…

Co-founder of UK-based Blue Maestro, New Zealander Kirstin Hancock knew from experience that attempting to take the temperature of a poorly child is no mean feat – whether you’re using an in-the-ear thermometer or…

Air New Zealand has taken a dull chore and turned it into a viral video phenomenon, complete with jaw-dropping shots from its home country and A-list Hollywood actors, Matt Meltzer reports for men’s digital…

New Zealander Josephine Van Lierop who relocated from one continent to another has now moved from London to Scotland to lead the employment law team at Slater and Gordon Edinburgh.
Van Lierop will oversee the…

Silicon Valley goes through its own unique shoe crazes. There were Vibrams. There were Crocs. Now comes the Allbird, a knit wool loafer. Founded by New Zealand soccer star Tim Brown, 36, and clean-technology…

The answer to the conundrum of adding financial literacy classes to already overloaded curriculums may just be an innovative piece of technology being trialled by 3000 Australian primary school children called Banqer and developed…

When American Matthew Monahan first visited New Zealand, the Silicon Valley software developer was struck by a sense of possibility, Bloomberg reports.
Seven years later, the 33-year-old is helping the government lure other foreign entrepreneurs…